Just recently, I have returned for a small vacation to Chicago, Illinois, USA. In these troubled times of a world-wide epidemic, I did not think a trip would happen in 2020. As it turns out, some museums in Chicago opened for limited visitation and Kentucky was not put on a quarantine list by Illinois. So I was able to visit.
So we visited the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) this week. The building was built for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. It was known as the Palace of Fine Arts. After the Exposition it housed the Field Museum of Natural History until that museum moved in 1920.
After watching a Brain Scoop YouTube video on the fossils in the floor tile at the Field Museum I wondered if they were at MSI. As it turned out, they were and they appear very similar to the ones found that Field Museum. According the video the tile were quarried at Carthage, Missouri, USA (Carthage Marble Corporation?).
The fossils in the pictures above are Mississippian Period Archimedes sp. bryozoan. The first image is a quite nice cross section showing the screw section plus the net like structure that helped capture food for the colony. The tile can be found in front of the Red Stairs entrance way.
